Aaron Blaise's Fundamentals of Animation Course/ Complete Animation Course: Animation Demonstration Video

Today, I watched the next video in Aaron Blaise's lessons that I had purchased. In this lesson, he taught how he approaches his animation process. In this he did a lipsync character body animation. He explained that he likes to create thumbnails in Adobe Photoshop to get ideas of his key frames and it lays the groundwork for the process. Then after you get those poses drawn for the keys, you can then start working on the breakdowns. He mentioned that we need to keep things loose while you are drawing. He said definitely don't get caught up in all the details because that will mess you up. This is something I struggle with as an animator and he mentioned that and I have hope that I can continue to improve as an animator and concept artist. Once you get your keys all mapped out he said while you are working strive to create dynamic framing. Animators need to feel the acting. Acting it out yourself is encouraged he said.

The next step after creating the key drawings is to focus on the breakdowns. This can be intimidating and hard but if you focus all that hard work goes a long way. He said the way he works is after the keys and breakdowns he begins to animate straight ahead. That's just how he does it. He tried to create a slow and deliberate animation that works into an explosion of energy. He said that every shot is important. He said that you don't want to focus too much time on one drawing. That is something that I am working to get better at myself. He said moves can be big but he said you can find it. The further away the drawings, the faster the animation will be.

He said continue to think about arcs often. He said that it really helps you find yourself and your art in the process and helps your animations look pleasing to the eye. He said continue to work loosely and don't get too sloppy. He tends to go back and forth between adjusting poses and drawings. Scrubbing through your drawings is a great idea he says. I stopped at 50:09 for the day and will be continuing my tutorial tomorrow. :) Great process and I feel like I am understanding animation much better this time around than when I was in college. I have matured more and feel more focused internally so these courses are awesome! I highly recommend them! Here are some shots of his tutorial that he was showing me. :)